1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to visual mapping systems, and, more particularly, to displaying data from a web service in a visual map.
2. Description of the Background Art
Visual maps, such as mind maps and topic maps, provide an excellent way for users to view large amounts information in an organized, graphical format. A visual map is a diagram that represents ideas and/or information in topics. Examples of visual maps are mind maps, topic maps, semantic networks, and concept maps. Visual maps are increasingly used to help people generate, classify, and/or organize ideas and information and to see such ideas and information in a hierarchical, visual layout. Visual maps are used for project management, work-flow analysis, organizational charts, and other purposes.
FIG. 1 is an example of a visual map for information related to a wireless communication project meeting. The visual map in FIG. 1 is a mind map. Mind maps are made up of hierarchically-arranged topics. The main topics in FIG. 1 are “Action Items”, “Purpose”, “Agenda”, “Time Place”, “Participants”, and “Purpose.” Each of these topics has subtopics. For instance, “Implementation” is a subtopic for “Action Items,” and “Carry out Launch” is a subtopic of “Implementation.” Users typically create topics in a visual map by inserting or importing text and graphic elements into topics.
Users typically create visual maps using proprietary visual mapping software. Mindjet LLC's MINDMANGER® and MINDJET CONNECT are examples of such software.
The Internet and the World Wide Web (the “Web”) have made a wealth of information available to Internet users. Many companies and other entities have made data available via Web Services (“web services”). Web services are a web-based interface to a data source. A computer can make a call to a web service based on the web service's published API (application programming interface). For example, a company with a CRM system may have a web-service interface to the CRM system. This means that the CRM data can be obtained by a program that makes a call to the web service associated with the CRM system.
It would be desirable to enable a user to view web service data within a visual map. Therefore, there is a need for a visual map interface from which a user can initiate a web service call.